In Dallas Independent School District, It's the Best School Board Money Can (and Did) Buy

In the end, Damarcus Offord never stood a chance against Bernadette Nutall.

Oh. Right. That.

After all the candidate forums and the radio debates and the mayor-izen endorsements, it turned out that the roughly 117 people who care about the politics of Dallas Independent School District were just extras in the occasional stage play put on by the North Dallas elite, who this time around emptied the change from their golf bags to put on a sterling production of Buy Buy School Board.

The three candidates who won seats over the weekend -- incumbent Bernadette Nutall and newcomers Dan Micciche and Elizabeth Jones -- were the candidates funded by Educate Dallas, the regional chamber's PAC, and Kids First, a similarly positioned PAC. Alliance-AFT, the teachers union that threw its support behind an entirely different slate, was a complete non-factor. So much for the big-bad-teachers-union theory.

The union got the most attention for endorsing Damarcus Offord, a 20-year-old college student with a less-than-firm grasp on the way school districts operate. But even if Offord had brought something, anything to the table besides his always-lit flamethrower, the money was always there, ready stamp him out. The $55,000 Nutall raised may not sound like much, but it was good for about 43 bucks a vote. It was more than enough.

As a result, the board remains as predictable as it's been, for better or worse. The rubber stamps for the reform movement's signature moves -- charter schools, Teach for America, performance-based pay, more aggressive HR practices (including more teacher firings), etc. -- have been re-moistened, and they are ready to be deployed by new supe Mike Miles.

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I voted for Ms. Nuttal because Mr. Offord was a horrible candidate. We already had someone in that seat, Mr. Ron Price, that often made me question whether he could complete the course of the the institution he managed. We do not need need another one four years later. I have no idea what she did to upset the teachers. A better opponent might have made that conflict important. Get a better candidate and thn we will see.

Dallas High Schools Alumni Association is another concened group which encouraged and supported qualified candidates to run - but did not make endorsements. The group held a well-attended candidate forum on April 28 at the Biblical Arts Museum. Offord and Parrott did not attend - they lost.

Teachers want their time back because they were not includedin this decision which affects them in so many ways and adds three and a halfweeks to their work load with no additional pay. Teachers also want their timeback because the district has not included them in the decision of how to usethat time. They have left it up to principal discretion. Most principals arechoosing to use that time for meetings, book studies and other functions thathave little to do with allowing teachers to prepare for actual teaching or totake care of the mountains of email, paperwork and documentation thataccumulate each day. Teachers are, in general, a generous group of people whodonate many dollars from their pockets and many hours on weekends and eveningsaway from family to better serve their students. They do this without beingasked. Teachers know when they need to put in extra hours, and they do sooften. Mandating that teachers spend an extra 45 minutes daily and thendictating how they spend that time takes away any flexibility that they have intheir day and sends the message that teachers aren’t wise enough to managetheir own time and workload.

Dallas ISD needs to work smarter, not harder, and realizethat they are alienating their workforce. Many are already searching for workin other districts. The best and brightest teachers will probably be hiredaway.

We are all here for the students, and perhapsthe best way to support them is by supporting teachers and trusting theirjudgment.

The search firm that brought Miles and didn't bring some top talent had also hired Kim Olson, another military Broad grad who helped blow up the budget just a few years ago. It's apparent the search firm brought a bunch a losers to the table as context for the Broad candidate.

A Dallas Achieves hire CFO and Olson apparently didn't understand basic finance the last go round. Miles has already loaded the org chart with too many central administrators. It appears we are headed for another budget debacle with DCC board choices in control.

Let's hope the new board candidates don't buy the 1% increase in test scores that Miles currently uses in his district to hold himself accountable. This new board better keep a close eye on staffing since Miles last district is also broke. Dallas doesn't have the reserves to keep repeating the same Broad fiasco.

It may go deeper than what bucks went into the election. Looking at the League of Women Voters site, it looked like most of the candidates back having more charter schools, with almost no one opposing them. Is there a background money flow there that we don't know about?

This exemplifies the DISD problem. The question isn't why a union or charter group, etc. did not find a stronger candidate, it is why (1) the local community did not recruit such a person, or (2) why such person did not step up on his own. This board and district would be called a failed state if they ran a country. Supposedly the local business community and Rawlins want to improve DISD. Why could they not get a person of excelkent abilities to run. They have the ways and means to do this. They could afford to give him a two year sabbatical and staff. They could even get him a residence in the district if so required. All of this would be chump change compared to the potential budget savings and efficiencies. Add in the value to the students and our economic community it would be a rounding error. There seems to be money for bridges, opera houses, symphony halls, and every other big rich bling. It is time for Rawlings and the business community to walk the walk. There is plenty of non-DCC, construction company money to do this. The fact it isn't being done is a scandal.

So it's alleged that "North Dallas" bought the election? If so then how do you account for the fact that many East Dallasites participated in/donated to Educate Dallas, Kids First, Dallas High Schools Alumni Association, et al?

What do you call it when a Medrano wins an election? They never lose, thanks to absentee ballots.

To all of the people who think that Mr. Offord was not qualified, I have a question. What exactly are the requirements to be a DISD trustee?

Resident in the district seat boundaries?Over 21? Maybe over 18?No felony convictions?US citizen?

What else am I missing here?

Mind you, I am not asking about things we would like to see in a DISD trustee such as: intelligent, knowledgeable about education, able to define goals and standards for the district, insists on adequate financial controls, among others.

No one spends $40 - 50 a vote just because they want to do the right thing. These seats were clearly bought and the newly elected trustees better obey the bosses' orders or they'll write the six-figure checks for someone else next time. Little to none of the thousands raised by Nutall and Micciche came from residents of their districts. Micciche's "volunteers" were either paid workers or Uplift Education employees. I met most of them and not a single one lived in District 3. Dallas Kids First claims to be a community organization but no one knows who their members are (they won't release the information) and their mailers come from California.

Perhaps this sudden interest and financial backing by so many people that don't even live in Dallas is simply because they truly want to do the right thing. I wish I could believe that but the most cursory study of the history of Dallas shows that the North Dallas bosses don't get involved unless they stand to profit and profit handsomely.

Your headline states that this election was bought. I disagree with you. I think that in the D9 race, the opposition candidate was a tool for the South Dallas establishment. They simply don't like Trustee Nutall because she doesn't play by their rules. This is politics. That's it. None of us are so naive as to think that money doesn't already play a huge role in every election in which we participate. It just so happens that this time the money came from sources that this news source vilifies on a daily basis. I get it. That's what your readers like. Hell, I'm one of them. But I also understand that DISD needs drastic change. I'm excited about the new board and the new Super. I'm excited because my children attend DISD schools. They attend DISD schools because our family believes in, and supports public education. No amount of snark from Unfair Park is going to diminish that excitement in me. I Dallas' history, but it's just that, history. I'm choosing to optimism for the future DISD.

Lord Jesus, I've waited almost 36 hours (exactly), on these exact words written Dallas Observer. I knew you were going to say this. Damarcus Offord has been campaigning now for 6 months, he gave it his best shot... If he would have won, then the headline would have said "The voters of District 9 have spoken". But he didnt. So why cant you say that the voters of District 9 spoke when Bernadette wins??? Ultimately regardless of where the money came from, the voters still had to check one name or the other. Or if Offord would have won, would you have said that he was the best candidate that Alliance AFT could have bought, seeing they also gave him $5K and paid for a mailer??? Yall really need to stop this. After all of the name calling, poor grammer written letters, civil disobediance and pure arrogance on part of Offord and camp, (especially on this blog) it did not transpire into anything substinative for him to stand on. That is why he lost. And if you (Dallas Observer) don't want to say it then I will. THE VOTERS OF DISTRICT 9 HAVE SPOKEN!!!

I love how people who have NO IDEA what they are talking about get to write for the "Edumication News" column of the Unfair Park Blog and call it news. I know your job is stand on the outside an lob stones at the big bad Dallas establishment, but could you at least come up with an original thought instead of regurgitating (with slightly more snark) the posts written by your colleagues.

Offord didn't go but they read a statement from Parrott - he was watching his son get a college award that day. The candidate's lack of attendance didn't mean anything anyway...their wasn't a black or brown face in the room...everyone looked to be lilly-white north dallas republicans.

A bunch of cynics, the lot of you. I know the people who started Dallas Kids First. Like me, they have have kids of toddler age and want their kids to have a good public school to go to, not what passes for public schools here in Dallas. They care. They organized. They won. End of story. People can care and do the right thing, they don't assume people are in it for money just because they put some of their financial muscle and that of their friends behind an effort to overturn an entrenched bureaucracy that clearly doesn't even recognize that there is a problem..

And if we are already doing that do we have your permission to become involved in elections that affect the DISD? Or are there some other hoops we must jump through to comment publicly about the trustees of our school system, which happens to manage over a billion dollars of taxpayer money.

"They could afford to give him a two year sabbatical and staff. They could even get him a residence in the district if so required."

I assume everyone would view such a person as bought and paid for, even more than the folks who collect a few dollars for fliers. Can you imagine it? What would the DO headline be: "DISD trustee paid for no-show job by North Dallas business interests with ties to various public contracts while living rent free in lavish East Dallas home."

The truth is I don't know why anyone would put up with the headache of being a DISD trustee. The job is full time and unpaid. Trustees are universally despised because they don't shit $100 bills to make up for state budget cuts. There is no example of a successful urban school district, so no one really knows if its even possible, let alone how to do it. It is an entirely thankless job.

Dallas Kids First won't release their member lists. Every "volunteer" I met was either an hourly worker or an employee of Uplift Education. Look at the donor lists. (Thankfully the law requires that they be made public.) Almost none of the thousands of dollars raised by Nutall and Micciche came from their districts.

But those things that you are conveniently not asking for ARE the qualifications of a Multi-Billion dollar ISD Board Trustee. You must know exactly what a bond election means. You must know exactly how to balance a simple check-book. You must know what it means to go to a job at least once.

These are BARE MINIMUM requirements. Would you really, to a man, trust the future of your child's education to a 20 year old, who has done NOTHING since High School graduation? It's not like this kid is a super-genius who graduated high school at 16, and college at 20. Nope, he's a nice young man from South Dallas. That's it.

You cannot avoid the bare minimum intelligence, and real life experience requirements to validate your argument, because by outlining how you don't want people citing those things you are invalidating your own question. It's a straw man.

Meeting the minimum requirements to run for an office does not make someone qualified to do the job. I haven't seen anyone suggest Mr. Offord didn't meet the minimum requirements to be eligible to run for trustee. I also haven't seen a credible argument that Mr. Offord was qualified to do the job.

We now have 5 white trustees for the first time in forever (in a district with 4.5% anglo kids). Lew will be re-elected president in a show of racial harmony-what a joke. This is a real disaster for the teachers and the kids. The board will no longer pretend that AFT has power and therefore has a seat at the table. Teachers will be summarily dismissed based on kid's test scores and any budget problems will be handled by "increasing the student/teacher ratio" (read: "firing teachers"). Where there was once a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel there is now simply the headlight of the train that will flatten DISD. Two more years of fucking-over the kids so adults can make a few bucks and posture that they are noble and wise and giving. My kid has been accepted to private school for next year,we were waiting to see if the Dallas power brokers were going to buy the election before we made the final decision to stay or go... so bye-bye and good riddance DISD..."the voters have spoken" at $42 bucks (and growing) per vote.

Yep. If money didn't make a difference, why did people throw so much money into these races--and contrary to what some people seem to think, Offord-Nutall wasn't the only race in town. The candidates who won were endorsed by the same people who brought you 43 AU schools and are too dense to understand that lousy teacher morale does more to produce bad teaching than anything else. Indeed, of the slate of elected candidates, Nutall is probably the least bad--at least she had the sense to vote against extending Mickey's contract, which shows she has some common sense.

There wasn't a black or brown face in the room? Uh the moderator was black. The alumni association president is black. I sat next to a brown-faced friend of mine - I think she is half-Anglo so maybe that doesn't count. Heck I even saw Dr.Lew Blackburn...who is in fact, black.

So now THEY are the entrenched bureaucracy...not a one of them has any experience with education issues..you said it yourslef, they used financial muscle to buy the seats...now who holds them accountable? Suposed to be the voters, but you and they just subverted THAT process!

Yes, thankless, but all the more reason to fixing things. If you get candidates of impeccable character and ability, immune to conflicts of interest, I believe they will be well received. You wouldn't care about headlines if you got results. And it doesn't seem too expensive to buy a DISD election, so you might as well buy it for the right person.

To paraphrase Terrell Owens, I can think of about a billion reasons why someone would spend $80,000 for an unpaid position.

Let's cut to the chase. For decades the North Dallas business community has used DISD as their personal stimulus package. They buy the school board seats and their trustees keep the contracts flowing to the North Dallas businesses.

These are the exact same people that are funding the "reform" movement.

For example, in order to be qualified to be the President of the United States, you must:

1) Be a native born US citizen or resided in the US at the time of the adoption of the present Constitution.2) Be at least 35 years of age; and, 3) Have resided continuously in the US for at least 14 years.

Please see Title 8 USC Section 1401, for the definition of "native born US citizen".

Those are the sole requirements to be qualified to be the President of the United States. Anything else is just opinion.

It is the same thing for a seat on the DISD Board. You might be able to use your arguments as to why one person makes a better candidate for the position than another person. But those arguments that you present may or may not have anything to do with whether or not someone is "qualified" to be a DISD trustee.

My personal opinion is that Mr. Offord brought some unique characteristics to the elections that merited serious consideration.

Given the current state of affairs with DISD particularly on financial controls, school performance and retention rates, I fail to see how any of the incumbents are "qualified" to be on the school board.

And that is the shining example of your insightful political analysis? The reason that the Observer is no longer relevant to the ongoing quagmire that is Dallas politics is summed up in those three sentences.

Why isn't the story "why can't the teacher's union come up with a credible candidate?" That seems to be the only lesson learned from the whole Offord/Nuttal debacle.

But even if the premise of your post is correct, i.e., Nuttal won because of business interests' money in the campaign, then isn't the takeaway "thank God for the business interests' money in the campaign." You said it yourself: "If [Offord] would have won, the headline would have been, 'We're all fucked.' Because, bless his heart, if that dude can win an election, we're all fucked."

"If the Teacher's Union put up someone who was more than minimally literate, who could do basic math, who had even the slightest of understanding of the way school systems work, or just had a plan (any plan) for the DISD, it might have beaten Nutall. But it couldn't find someone who could check any of those boxes to run in District 9. In the end, it wasn't the money that made the difference in that election. It was the terrible opposition candidate."

Your message = "I don't know what they are, but I'll talk a lot of crap about them". Here's a proposal: Why don't you try to propose a solution rather than bashing on people who are genuinely trying to make a positive difference?

There's an incredible amount of hate in these posts, with no sign of solutions or positive suggestions. What are you protecting? Why is your half-assed commentary so vile?

I know propaganda when I see it. Why has Dallas Kids First never knocked on my door? Why haven't they done anything in my neighborhood or neighborhood schools? Whey haven't they held any public meetings? Why are they so secretive? Whey do their mailers come from Glendale, California? Why do the overwhelming majority of their financial backers not live within Dallas ISD boundaries? Why are their "volunteers" either paid temp workers or employees of Uplift Education?

ALL Dallas Kids First has done is throw an awful lot of money behind candidates. I don't know exactly what DKF is, but I know for a fact they aren't what they say they are.

It is just that the average person is absolutely clueless when it comes to qualifications for public office.

The discussion is meaningful because people are saying what characteristics and traits that they want in a DISD Trustee.

There is a difference between being a qualified trustee and being a qualified trustee candidate.

My opinion is that none of the current trustees are qualified. So why should we have reelected Ms. Nutall? Just because you think that her opponent is worse? I don't think that she has done anything worthwhile as a Trustee in spite of, or despite, her "qualifications".

Or your point is that there are more than a million people that meet the minimum qualifications to be a DISD trustee (over 18, not declared mentally incompetent by a court, not convicted of a felony). Many people meeting these requirements cannot read or write. Many cannot do basic math. Many cannot speak English. Many suffer from mental defects. Some are lying in a coma in a hospital room right now. Others are in jail awaiting trial. Per your definition of "qualified", none of these things would render someone unqualified to be a DISD trustee because none violate any statutory requirement. In other words, your definition of qualified is effectively meaningless for purposes of our discussion.

There are statutory requirements that are required to be met in order to be qualified to run for one of the DISD Board of Trustees seats.

Everything else above and beyond that are characteristics that someone may wish to see in a DISD Trustee.

I am glad that you set a high bar for what you want to see in a candidate for a DISD trustee.

I am of the opinion that Ms. Nutall does not possess the characteristics that you state are so desirable in a DISD trustee.

With that being my opinion, Mr. Offord was the preferred candidate in my mind as I did not think that he could be any worse than Ms. Nutall. And that, in my opinion, would be an improvement because he would start demanding answers to the simple questions that no one has been asking.

As far as Mr. Offord being the CEO of Apple, that would be up to the stockholders of Apple, Inc. and no one else. After all, Mr. Jobs barely finished high school and dropped out of college after 6 months and ended up designing computer games.. So I conclude that if you saw Mr. Jobs today as a 20 year old, you would conclude that he would not be fit to be the CEO of Apple either.

Please go back and learn what the requirements are for a political office and how that may be different than would you personally would prefer to see in a political candidate.

You need to learn the difference between and opinion and a fact. It is not my opinion that he's not held a job, nor is it my opinion that he has no knowledge of budgeting on even a micro level. Those are FACTS. Facts that he stated in an interview just a week or so ago. He has no idea how to do the job that he was campaigning for - which makes him an non-qualified candidate. Let's see..... two primary responsibilities of a DISD trustee: 1) Set, Review, Alter, Update, Expand, Contract, etc. the $1,700,000,000 Budget , and 2) Hire/Fire Upper Level School Administration. Yeah, he would totally succeed with those tasks.

Obviously any person of legal age and residence can run for public office. Stating the obvious as a way to argue a point about someone's lack of qualifications is the Straw Man that I was referring to. It's actually your complete lack of a point that's shocking to me. Their is a significant difference between legal qualifications and job specific qualifications. Offord is also LEGALLY qualified to be the CEO of Apple, Inc. But should he be the CEO???? No, absolutely not, because he has no job specific qualifications that would make me him a success at that position. If he's not successful at that position as the leader of an organization, it's more than likely that the organization will suffer as a consequence of his ineptitude. This is what DISD would have gotten with Offord - ineptitude.

Paul, if you're so sure of his qualifications and you love his "fire" so much then hire him at your place of business and let him get some real world experience and perspective. Let him get even a basic understanding of how the world works - and for God's sake teach him what Bonds are. Then, maybe he can make a successful run at DISD.

But please remember these qual's when reviewing his job application: He's 20 years old, graduated high school at 18 and has had no employement in the two years since, he doesn't know what a GPA is nor does he know what his was at Graduation, he has no check-book (if he does have one he's never balanced it or any other kind of budget), and at the first opportunity he will turn the tables on you because "you're wrong" not because "he's right". Those are actually the best qualifications I could find for him, LOL. Have fun with that!!!!

Is it politically correct to write that.... No. But, is it true.... Yes.

The observer writes (except for Schutze) for the common man. This isn't DMN. I prefer the witty banter of the observers columnists to the other local news affiliates. Sometimes you gotta say the words that cross your lips without censoring yourself. If that kid had won, the current DISD train-wreck would have become a Bullet Train-Wreck so fast we would have a full-on State of Texas takover on our hands.

Alliance was caught with their pants down. If they want to remain the premier teachers union in DISD, they better learn how to raise funds and picke viable candidates - like most unions do eveywhere else but here.

The story I hear is that Alliance and several other groups were looking for candidates in District 9. The fact that they couldn't find anyone more qualified than Offord says more about the citizens of District 9 than it does about the union.

I read a lot of political articles. I like most of the DO's stuff a great deal, I am no fan of pay to play politics, and I particularly enjoy it when the DO gets in to some politician's face about it (the inland port stuff is top notch).

But this article was piss poor. The headline states that the DISD school board was bought and paid for as though it were fact. The evidence: (1) a 20-year-old community college dropout who doesn't know what a "bond" is and had absolutely no platform was unsuccessful at defeating the incumbent; (2) the loser didn't raise any money while the incumbent raised more than $50,000. That doesn't pass the smell test.

It would be like saying Michele Bachmann isn't going to be our next President only because she didn't have enough money for the campaign as though the bat shit crazy things she says couldn't possibly have something to do with it. You can make those arguments, but it would be bad journalism to do it because: (1) truly terrible candidates rarely have much money to spend on campaigns; and (2) truly terrible candidates usually lose. It's a classic case of correlation failing to demonstrate causation. Both conditions occur because the candidate is terrible, condition 1 does not cause condition 2.

Don't read many political articles, eh? From sea to shining sea, from purple mountains majesty, most political articles across this fair land eventually bring to light the money situation. Why is that, you ask? Because money influences election outcomes. Plain and simple.

For what it's worth, what did Nuttall bring to the table besides 'more of the same stuff you've seen through her last term'?

If the Teacher's Union had put someone who was even borderline competent against Nutall, the question of money in the race would be relevant. But no one can say whether money could buy this seat at the DISD because there weren't two competent candidates (with money or no money). That you still choose to use the race as evidence of your belief that South Dallas sold and that North Dallas bought the District 9 trustee spot tells me more about your reporting than it does about Dallas politics.

Of course a better candidate would have made for a closer race, and everyone would have loved to see that. But even if the teachers union put someone better up, how many more people would have turned out for him or her? Enough to overcome whatever money Educate Dallas and Kids First threw at Nutall? They could have thrown more, of course.